


The Twelfth Flight

by jellyfishbait



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Aerialists, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2019-01-12
Packaged: 2019-09-17 04:40:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16967862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jellyfishbait/pseuds/jellyfishbait
Summary: Shakespeare had it right when setting up dates and messing with the romantic lives of others causing some chaos.Its the chaos of Twelfth Night with the fun of aerialists BECAUSE APPARENTLY NO ONE WRITES ABOUT THATanyways fake dates, accidental dates, chaos, scheming, and flying!





	1. Chapter 1

Lance walked into the studio, as he normally did Tuesday afternoon to the unexpected sight of a metal monstrosity haphazardly taking up a large portion of the center of the room. Given a second glance, Lance found that the majority of the unexpectedness was lost due to the two persons sitting in front of the _thing_. Pidge and Keith were covered with grease and soot sitting in anticipation as an odd metal structure was given a thorough looking over by Hunk. Anyone would’ve been concerned about the amount of force being used on what looked like modern art and the rough hands being brisked over every edge and corner, but they weren’t anyone. Day one of training as an aerialist was safety and trust this - none of them were ever likely to forget it. At Altea Aerial, however, no one was better than Hunk at making sure no one died from faulty rigging or a bad apparatus than maybe perhaps Coran.

 

The subtle thud of the door alerted the others of his entrance, Pidge too involved to even glance over. She settled for a mere wave over her shoulder while Keith hurriedly  waved Lance over. Ducking over to the open lockers by the entrance to dump his bag of gear. Lance made his way over, tugging off his blue hoodie to reveal a simple black turtleneck leotard, the edge of bright blue shorts peeking above his dark grey sweatpants.

 

“Well?” questioned Pidge, anxiousness adding a sense of rudeness to her question.

 

“Congratulations, your creation has now officially passed the ‘this will not kill Keith or anyone around him’ test. But please, for the love of god, don’t take that as a challenge. Whipped cream and confetti guns are only fun the _first_ time.”

 

Hunk eyed over the structure a final time before moving to a nearby pillar to hoist the rig farther off of the mat.

 

By the time Lance made it to where Keith and Pidge were, Hunk had the metal apparatus suspended so that the bottom of the rig was at roughly waist height.

 

“So...  Where exactly did _this_ come from?” Lance shifted, hand on hip, gesturing with skepticism to the odd contraction. Twisting slightly from being rigged, the metal structure seemed to be an arrow pointing towards the sky. It had the appearance of a ladder that had been thoroughly mangled and haphazardly welded back together.

 

“Aliens, obviously,” retorted Keith, smirking at the immediate deadpan eyebrow he received from Lance at the answer.

 

“Pidge had gotten an idea based on some artwork they had seen online recently and came up with a sketch and then dragged me and Matt  about choreo done with balance and ladders. Two weeks later and, yeah” Keith shrugged, gesturing at the contraption.

 

Any response was cut off by an over enthusiastic Pidge barging in.

 

“Enough talk about it! Let’s see what you can do on it!” She grinned at Keith and he could positively see the schemes coming together in her mind. Yet in what seemed to be a comedy of interruptions, a hand came down on Keith’s shoulder before he could move or respond.

 

“No one is ‘trying out’ any new contraptions until we’ve all had a decent warmup. So, unless you’ve decided you’d like to join us,” Pidge mock shuddered, “I’d like the floor free now?”

 

Shiro’s voice came with sternness, but humor enough that Pidge didn’t argue - merely sticking out her tongue before turning on a heel and hurrying over to the far stairs that lead up to the tech booth. Pidge tended to the music for rehearsals as well as planning out the lighting for acts when the studio put on end of year performances and graduations. This year, Altea Aerial would also be hosting the minor annual competition between a couple other studios nearby.

 

Moving his hand from Keith’s shoulder, Shiro deposited his bag over by the open lockers before moving back to stand in front of where the intermediate and advanced students were beginning to trickle in and line up on lightly padded floor. Saluting lightly towards the open windows of the booth, music streamed lightly through the speakers as Shiro began the choreographed stretches and form practice that pretty much everyone had memorized at this point.

 

While most studios tended to just let everyone warm up on their own, Altea prefered to have everyone warm up together to bring a better sense of community. The musical element of this also helped many aerialists with the performance aspects of routines.

 

With the end of the song, a majority of the students (a whopping 4 of them) split off with Allura, who had been the last to enter the massive space. Moving to the corner with the mid-height silks, she directing two of the girls to drag the crash mats underneath one of the silks. As they split off Keith and Lance went over to the contraption, hanging ominously dystopian amidst the colorful silks that fluttered around the space.

 

“Mind holding it still while I get on it?” Keith had moved forward to grab the bottom rung, which was suspended around the height of the bottom of his ribs.

 

“What? Scared of a itty bit of moving metal are we?” Lance retorted, striking a pose as if to scare a child to which Keith merely leveled a deadpan look.

 

“Maybe I care about the fact that we don’t know how much this is going to swing and I’d hate for your face to get knocked in by ‘a itty bit of moving metal’.”

 

“Oh my holy quiznak!”

 

Lance’s retort was cut off by An exhuberent yell echoed around the space, dragging eyes from around the room to who had burst into the room.

 

“Is that the mystery device that Pidge was working on?” Matt, Pidge’s older brother, did a skip and somersault over to where Keith and Lance were still glaring at each other. “She wouldn’t tell me what she was working on but I knew it had to be good! That smirk was simply too annoying for it to be any ol’ thing...”

 

“Yup. Just passed inspection from Hunk,” Keith gave the rung an experimental push, “haven’t tried it out yet though.”

 

The shove had lead the apparatus to swing a bit, but not as much as Keith had feared it would. With a word of warning, Keith reached a couple rungs up and pulled himself up to stand on the bottom rung, leading it to move away with the change of center of mass. Lance hopped backwards to avoid a ladder part to his face, moving to stand next to Matt. Continuing to climb up, Keith carefully sat upon the top rung, between the two ropes that held the apparatus aloft. It was then that Keith began to explore, drawing upon his knowledge of movement on trapeze and lyra to navigate around the ladders and open space, wholly wrapped up in the schemes of this new contraption.

 

Lance watched Keith contort his way around the new device, with Matt standing next to him miming potential tricks as his mind wove together potential choreography, until a call from Allura broke him away.

 

“Hey Lance, could you come help? We are working on belay wraps and holds today.”

 

Answering by lightly jogging over, Lance gave his cousin a quick hug before going to stand ready at the empty pink silks hanging from the ceiling.

 

“Alright. So Lance, we are starting with the belay splits. This starts with a basic belay and moves to hanging from one knee.”

 

Lance quickly and efficiently climbed up the silk and slipped into a quick belay, adjusting to hanging by one knee from the loop he had made within the silks. At Allura’s prompting, he went step by step through the holds and wraps to correctly and safely move into the split pose and sequentially how to get out of the pose without injury. After going through this a couple times and a couple other poses, at times with the students, the students were given free time to work on getting into and out of these as well as combining what had been worked on in past classes.

 

Lance stretched, walking over to Allura who was watching the students in case any of them needed help and in case of injury.

 

“So cous, how’s life?”

 

He sank down into the splits to work on some more specific stretches for the choreography he was going to run through later. Allura sighed and pinching the bridge of her nose.

 

“I swear to god,” she paused, taking a moment to pointedly glare at the two men working on trapeze and straps, “if they don’t stop dancing around each other, I am going to trap them in the storage room.”

 

Lance laughed under his breath at that, contorting into a backbend to not-so-secretly spy upon the two men Allura was discussing. Shiro was working with an advanced student, with them both synchronising themselves through a rather strength intensive routine. Matt was across the room working with two advanced static trapeze students, who were rather left to their own devices with Matt to consult with on choreography for their upcoming pieces in the mini competition.

 

Both men glanced at the other when, coincidentally, the opposite was performing something on their prefered aerial apparatus. If someone didn’t do something soon, this was just going to keep getting more and more awkward if the red flushes on both men’s faces were anything to go by.

 

Lance kicked over from his backbend to end up lying on his stomach on the floor. Allura had gone over to help a student with a question and when she came back, it was to a grin beginning to spread over Lance’s face.

 

“Whatever you are scheming, stop.”

 

Allura was utterly unmoved by the puppy dog eyes Lance gave her in response. She moved away sighing and dismissed class, reminding her students to stretch a bit so they don’t cramp later and to keep up on flexibility and core exercises at home.

 

Across the room, Shiro and Matt were also dismissing students and Keith had gone over to discuss something with Matt. Lance, however, was simply excited that since classes were over he could take over one of the performance level rigs. Open gym was _definitely_ Lance’s favorite part of the day.

 

Hunk came over, preemptively prepared with the longer silk Lance needed.

 

“Have I ever told you I love you?” Lance asked Hunk, dramatically leaning against the larger man and earning himself a warm hearted chuckle.

 

After checking the rig, Hunk gave Lance the all go, clapping his friend on the back before wandering over to take down the silks no longer being used and to work on the plan for the lighting systems with Pidge for the upcoming competition.

 

Grabbing Pidge’s attention, Lance used basic ASL to ask for the fourth song on his list. Pretty much everyone in the friend group knew sign language since Hunk’s mom, Steph, was mostly deaf as were several of Hunk’s other friends.

 

The first few notes of animal started through the speakers as Lance dropped into the splits underneath drapes of silk. One of his first performance pieces was to this song, and he had modified bits and added others to create an overall well rounded warm up in the air.

 

Around the gym area, Keith worked on his own routine on the lyra as Matt worked on trapeze. Shiro and Allura did some hand to hand, as always, before walking over to the designated aerial strap area.

 

A quiet cacophony filled the gym as songs faded together and aerialists came and went. Keith and Pidge, with ample help from Hunk, rolled the apparatus into the back storage room sometime during the time period. Lance taught a class of youngsters, a few of them managing a few simple beginner moves.

 

The end of the day rolled around and Coran politely, but firmly, asked the last few parents and aerialists to leave.

 

“I hope you all aren’t too tired to monkey on up for the tech check!”

 

Coran bounced into the center of the gym, looking all too much like the massive circus poster on one of the walls. It was brilliantly colored with the words “Coran Coran the Gorgeous Man” emblazoned on the front with an artistic rendition of Coran flying from the trapeze. Although the man on the poster was much younger, that positively neon orange mustache was unmistakable.

 

Pidge had worked open the booth windows, and dimmed the lights just so slightly. Hunk walked out to where the microphone usually stood. Holding up an outstretched thumb, he patiently waited for the all good from Pidge.

 

Using the microphone, Pidge quickly called out “going dark” before cutting all the lights in the gym. A spot quickly found its way over to Hunk, with a quick “clear” to follow.

 

Notes were taken, strike tape placed on the stage, and several rigs being put up and down in quick succession to check the lighting for the different events. By the time Pidge had finished the checks of all the lights, with Hunk running around changing rigging and light colors, it was nearly 9 pm and no homework done. It really sucked that they all had school tomorrow.

 

After shutting off but the working lights, Pidge and Hunk wandered down the stairs arguing over defense matrices for deathbots and headed towards where everyone had gathered at the entrance.

 

Exiting the building together, they scattered to the various vehicles they had arrived in. Lance dramatically flopped into the passenger side of Hunk’s Jeep as Pidge practically launched themselves through the back bars, only to immediately turn and bring the argument back up.

 

Keith and Allura split off to head to where their bikes were parked, amiably discussing the upcoming week while Coran waved them all goodbye as he sped towards home, the lights on his jacket dazzlingly bright, not to mention the light fixed to the handlebars. Matt and Shiro pretty much ignored everyone, deep in discussion over a pretty big upcoming project the groups for which were to be assigned tomorrow.

 

\--- --- ---

 

Hunk pulled out of the parking lot, Lance stealing the aux cord before turning to ask what the playlist for the ride home was. At this, Pidge turned, placing her hand on the shoulder of Lance’s seat.

 

“Lance,” she said rather quietly, “if I hear _any_ of your performance songs, I swear to god...”

 

“Hey! I’ll have you know that I have _excellent_ taste in performance music!” Lance glared back at Pidge, neither of them breaking the now staring contest.

 

“Lance if you could play some Beck that’d be great, and Pidge? Your argument is flawed.”

 

And with that Hunk kept the peace - or as much of it as there ever is.  The rest of the trip home stayed this way, until Hunk pulled up outside of Lance’s house. Grabbing his backpack, Lance waved behind him, not making it to the door before being tackled by Marco. Luis appeared at the door, Veronica on his shoulders and both waved Hunk and Pidge goodbye.

 

As they disappeared, and Marco ran back inside for dessert, Lance’s phone vibrated.

 

**Keith > Lance**

**Keith:** we need to talk

 

Lance looked at the message and shrugged in utter wtf-ness at his phone. Forgetting the message, he hurried inside to grab a dessert before his siblings finished off everything. The rest of the evening passed as normal for Lance, eating leftovers from dinner and helping out Luis with his trig homework before heading up to his room and opening his laptop to check what homework he had. Since it was still in the first month of school, he didn’t have much. Just to check up on recent events for senior issues and a worksheet for calculus.

 

Flopping onto his bed, Lance turned on the fairy lights he had strung across the room and sent Allura a quick snap.

 

**Sirlanceahot > PrincessAllura**

 

 

 

 

**Lanceahot:** tea party?

**Princess:** spill dat tea

**Lanceahot:** so I get home rite?

**Princess:** right

**Lanceahot:** and I get this weird ass text who guess who

**Princess:** ain’t nobody got time for dat

**Princess:** tell meeeeeeeeee

**Lanceahot:** Keith fucking Kogane and all it says is “we need to talk”

**Lanceahot:** like wtf? What? The actual? Fuck?

**Princess:** boi if it was anyone else I’d swear u were making it up

**Princess:** doesn’t Keith have like a Nokia?

**Lanceahot:** fuck if I know

**Lanceahot:** one sec he’s legit txting me again

 

**Keith > Lance**

**Keith:** pls u gotta help me

**Keith:** they are so awkward and ridiculous I’m gunna puke

**Lance:** um boi wut

**Keith:** i stfg if matt and my bro don’t figure something out soon I’m gunna lock them in a room together until they do

**Lance:** dude, right?! Ok I gots a scheme going... u in?

 

**sirlanceahot > princessallura**

 

**Lanceahot:** bitch ur not gunna believe

**Lanceahot:** Keith wants help in setting up matt and Shiro

**Lanceahot:** YOU CANT STOP US BOTH

**Princess:** wtf Keith

**Princess:** Lance what did Keith actually say?

**Lanceahot:** I can’t belive you

**Lanceahot:** anyways he said that he’s gunna puke if Matt and Shiro keep dancing around eachother

 

“Lance! Mijo! Duérmete! You have school!”

 

Looking over at his alarm clock, he noticed that it was nearly midnight and he had to get up at 6:30 am if he wanted to get through his pre-day routine. Sighing, he snapped Allura goodnight, double checked his alarms, and with a pause to plug in his phone for the night, he trudged to the bathroom to go through his nightly routine.

 

He was just slipping into bed when there was a soft knock on his door, and his mom peeked inside.

 

“Goodnight mijo,” she said implying a certain doom if he attempted to stay up later.

 

“Noche mami.”


	2. Enter the Scheme

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge is a Being of Salt, Keith doesn't care, Lance should never be allowed to make group chats, and Hunk remains forever the Mom Friend.

Pidge was huddled in the back of Hunk’s Jeep nursing a mug of coffee, looking like death. Lance swung his backpack in the back next to Pidge’s feet before essentially collapsing in the passenger seat. About to launch into his monologue about how it was simply ‘much too early’ to be awake, Lance was stopped preemptively by Hunk, who shoved a frapp that looked as if it could give someone diabetes before they could drink half of it under Lance’s nose.

 

“Hunk, my darling, my love. You are the only reason I make it to school alive.”

 

Hunk merely laughed as Pidge continued to grumble while Lance’s morning playlist began to blast through the Jeep’s speakers. Lance somehow singing along while essentially devouring the frapp. Even with the caffeine and sugar,  Pidge barely tolerated anyone this early especially and was only just awake enough to get out of the jeep by the time they arrived, a decent 15 minutes before the bell to go to first period. 

 

Loading out, they heard the rumbling of Keith’s motorcycle pulling into the senior parking lot. Parking near them, Keith quickly got off and lightly jogged over to them. Slowing as he neared, it was clear that he had gone insane sometime since they all last got together as Keith flops on top of the now seething Pidge. 

 

“Pidge,” he said, ducking away from being elbowed in the side, “for the love of god please take your brother back.”

 

“No way in hell is that ever happening. Your apartment, your problem.”

 

Groaning Keith stood up to his full height, pulling his hair into a ponytail to keep it manageable during school. 

 

“This about Shiro and Matt?” Lance inquired, an eyebrow raised while slurping the dregs of whip cream at the bottom of his frapp.

 

“I’m surprised they actually managed to make dinner last night without burning the whole building down,” Keith snorted as they started to walk towards school proper, stuffing his hands in his pocket. “They keep dancing around each other and lately it’s just been absolutely ridiculous. Like,  _ guys _ , for the love just figure out that you like each other already!”

 

Lance laughed as Hunk simply shook his head. Pidge, nearly crashing into a person walking by, continued to pointedly not care.

 

It was this pointed act of  _ not caring _ that brought about the ensuing comment.

 

“The reason they are dancing around is that mom called them boyfriends when she got tipsy with Hunk’s moms. Now they are being weird about it.”

 

Pidge was abruptly stopped by Keith grabbing her backpack.

 

“Why the hell were you keeping this to yourself?” he asked in exasperation dragging Pidge to face the group by her backpack. She merely smirked, somehow pulling out another thermos of sugar and milk with a dash of coffee from her seemingly caffeine infused backpack. 

 

Pidge continued to consume whilst she ducked under Keith’s arm elbowing him in the side in the process and continuing forward with Hunk as the bell rung out across campus. 

 

Keith was still holding his side as he turned to Lance, feeling the murder still on his face.

 

“Ok, we definitely need to do something. They will keep doing this forever and I don’t think I can survive having to live in that.”

 

Lance merely agreed, rambling potential schemes as they ran through his mind as they both walked towards the first of their classes.

 

* * *

It seemed like an eternity before lunch rolled around and they all gathered where they usually did, in the courtyard behind the cafeteria. Every now and again they would go off campus for lunch, but most of the time it wasn’t worth the effort of finding a parking spot afterwards. 

 

Keith was just sitting down as Lance positively bounded over with a skip in his step.

 

“Ok,” he started, setting down his tray with finality as he sat on the ground, “we all know that Matt and Shiro like each other but are idiots and won’t do anything about it, right?”

 

“Could it  _ be _ any more obvious?” 

 

Pidge was sitting up against a bench, headphones practically dwarfing her face as she didn’t even look up from the code she was writing. The only movement Pidge made towards the others was to flip off Lance at his glare in response to her earlier sarcasm. 

 

“ _ Anyways _ ,” Lance continued, gesturing with a chicken nugget, “I think we should set up a plot to make them finally realize that they are hella gay and need to just freaking go out on a date already.” 

 

Lance settled back on a hand, a glint in his eye and a smirk on his face as he surveyed the circle of friends. Pidge merely rolled her eyes and continued tapping away while Hunk looked concerned next to them. 

 

“Guys, isn’t that a bit rude though? What if one of them doesn’t return the feelings and this ruins their friendship?” 

 

Lance paused at that, slouching as he continued to chow down on chicken nuggets.

“Actually,” Pidge spoke, surprising them all, “if Keith can confirm Shiro’s feelings then I can confirm Matt’s and even if they don’t figure it out they still would’ve had a nice time together.”

 

Keith shrugged, “In that case, I can confirm that yeah Shiro likes Matt. I mean, he hasn’t told me explicitly but he is literally doing the exact same thing he has always done when he has a major crush.”

 

“Then it’s settled! Now shut up so I can get some work done.” Pidge slid her headphones back on and reconvened with ignoring everyone. Keith ate his sandwich thoughtfully slow, plots running through his head. 

 

“Do you have anything in mind Lance?” Keith asked, pointedly inquiring with his sandwich. 

 

“Isn’t that movie they both wanted to see coming out this weekend? We could all say we are going and then everyone duck out after they’ve already bought tickets!” 

 

“Won’t that be... painfully obvious that they are being set up?”

 

Pidge snorted.

 

“As oblivious as they are, they probably won’t even realize they went on a date.”

 

Everyone paused at this, Hunk with disbelief, Keith with frustration, and Lance with exasperation that could only come from a drama student.

 

“You’re right, but we’ve gotta do  _ something, _ ” Keith spoke finally with a sigh in exasperation. “I honestly can’t stand this, they are so  _ bad and they can’t fucking figure it out.” _

 

“So, are we doing this?” Lance raised an eyebrow. 

 

“Oh hell yeah,” retorted Keith. 

 

The rest of lunch passed pretty much as normal, filled with sarcastic retorts and odd questions asked. It ended, like always, too soon with food left uneaten and conversations hastily finished as Hunk and Pidge headed off to tech while Keith and Lance headed off in the opposite direction to head to physics and “occupational education” respectively.

 

* * *

Getting out of calculus early meant that Lance was already sitting in the jeep by the time that Pidge and Hunk arrived, somewhat sweaty and vaguely coated in sawdust and other mechanical whatnot. Pidge clambered through the rollcage and nearly face planted in the back seat. Catching herself, Pidge dumped her backpack on the floor before collapsing on the back seat.

 

“Coffee...” she groaned, zombie arms outstretched, “I need coffee...”

 

Hunk merely shook his head as he dumped his backpack in the back and started the jeep. Pulling out of the school parking lot, he turned towards home in the direction that guaranteed no starbucks. As Lance started up the music, Pidge put a hand on the shoulder of Hunks chair and merely glared.

 

“There is perfectly decent coffee at home and you are going to go over budget for Starbucks this week if you go today.” 

 

“Why are you so on top of everything?” Pidge exclaimed, “Did you sell your soul to a demon or something?” 

 

Hunk’s lack of response catching the attention of the rest of the occupants of the car, Lance merely stared as Pidge analyzed Hunk, eyes widening. 

 

“You did! Didn’t you?”

 

Hunk merely smirked into the rear view mirror as  Pidge threw up her hands in defeat.

After dropping off Lance at his house, Hunk continued to drive himself and Pidge back to their house. Walking in the door, they were greeted by a friendly call and a most amazing smell.

 

Pidge nearly melted walking inside, overwhelmed by stew wafting through the air, sure to leave a lingering scent for the next couple days. They stopped in the kitchen as per usual, leaning against the bar counter where a plate of snacks was waiting. 

 

“Hey tinā! Got my design for the final project approved, so you will be looking at a new app for the garden soon.”

 

“Sekia! Now I can grow enough plants to take over the world!” Natia let out a horrendously fake evil laugh, smacking Pidge’s hand as she tried to steal a cookie. “Not until after dinner, young lady.” They waved to Natia, grabbing snacks as Pidge continued to grumble about the cookies and headed to the backyard where they had built up a workshop in what used to be a generic garden shed.

 

Hunk and Pidge worked together to expand it to fit a large movable table, a couple work desks, the plethora of work tools they had collected over the years, as well as a mini fridge - of course. The most notable aspect of the workshop was the wall covered by a modge podge of collected technology keeping track of scores from the numerous dares and bets and competitions that had occurred over the years, the favorite being the pun-based sin count. They had both settled down to start on homework together, with laptops, papers, and textbooks scattered across the large table, when both of their phones went off at the same time. 

 

**Aerial Assholes**

_ Leg-endaryLance has added (6) _

_ KryptidKeith, AlluringAllura, HandyHunk, MaybeMatt, ShiningShiro, PidgeonSQUAK _

 

**Leg-endaryLance:** Hey everyone! I figured since we all hang out so much I might as  well so HA

**Leg-endaryLance:** anyways, I was thinking we could all catch a movie this weekend?

 

_ Leg-endaryLance has started a plan _

_ Movie Night, This Saturday at 6pm _

 

**KryptidKeith:** I mean im down anything is better than hw 

 

_ KryptidKeith is going to Movie Night _

 

**AlluringAllura:** Sure! I don’t think ive got anything planned for this weekend

**HandyHunk:** sounds good to me but also why are all of our nicknames alliterating?

 

_ HandyHunk is going to Movie Night _

_ AlluringAllura is going to Movie Night _

 

**PidgeonSQUAK:** except for mine? Wtf lance also im down as long as i dont have too  much hw 

 

_ Leg-endaryLance changed PidgeonSQUAK to PutridPidgeon _

 

**Leg-endaryLance:** there now ru happy

**PutridPidgeon:** i hate you so much rn

**ShiningShiro:** Lance please stop this also I should be able to this weekend as long as I  don’t get assigned an exceptionally long lab report tomorrow

**MaybeMatt:** why am I possibly Matt am I actually math? Whyyyy anyways i should be  good for this weekend too

**PutridPidgeon:** matt is a cryptid confirmed  *cue illuminati music*

 

_ MaybeMatt is going to Movie Night _

 

**PutridPidgeon:** also fuck you lance

 

_ PutridPidgeon changed their name to TheMadEngineer _

 

**MaybeMatt:** pidge why are u like this

**Leg-endaryLance:** PIDGE WASNT UR ARGUMENT AT THE BEGINNG THAT UR  NICKNAME DIDNT ALLITERATE?!?!?!

**TheMadEngineer:** lance idgaf so stfu

**AlluringAllura:** smh

**ShiningShiro:** for the love guys. Dont we all have homework rn anyways? AND school  tomorrow???

**KryptidKeith:** gee bro thanks for the reminder it wasn’t like I hate life rn anyways

**TheMadEngineer:** ^^^^^^^

**TheMadEngineer:** ok hunk is glaring at me now so i guess its hw time yeet my dudes

 

Hunk looked over at Pidge, raising an eyebrow. 

 

“What?” she exclaimed, “it’s not like they were aware you were lurking and not actually glaring at me!” 

 

“ _ Homework, _ ” teased Hunk, tapping a pencil on the open literature book in front of Pidge.

 

With that final comment, and unnecessary grumbling from Pidge that they both set to work on the english assignments they both had due Monday. They worked for a few hours, munching on the light snacks from Natia and grabbing some drinks kept in the mini fridge. Turning on music as they reached their goals for the writing portion, they chatted and sung along as they moved onto the science and math portion of their homeworks. Over the years they had set up really a rather good method of figuring out what they needed to get done and by when, perfectly set up so they had time to scheme on their latest plans before dinner called them back to the house.

 

It was only when the LEDs surrounding the door flashed that they left their laptops and papers to hurry inside to the delicious meal that awaited them.

 

* * *

 

It was Friday afternoon the next time everyone was in the same place. Pidge sat on top of the lockers next to Lance who was sprawled out across a bench. Keith had come over and was starting to pack away his gear as fast as possible to avoid his brother.

 

Shiro and Matt had continued to be blatantly awkward around each other without, somehow, figuring out how painful this was getting - not from anything changing but from the utter lack of change. Especially since they still shared a locker. 

 

“Hey!” exclaimed Lance as he was slid off the side of the bench by Keith’s foot. 

 

“Excuse me,” Keith mentioned snarkily, sitting down, “but some people actually want to use the bench for its intended purpose.”

 

Lance was still waxing dramatic about betrayal to Pidge, who wasn’t listening, when Hunk finally came from packing away the last of the silks from practice. 

 

“Hunk, my one, my only, my love,” Lance cried out, “please kick the vermin that is this fiend known as Keith.”

 

Keith shrugged as Hunk raised his eyebrow at him. “All I did was shove him off the bench.”

 

“Ah yes, Lance. A capital crime indeed.” Hunk shook his head and yelled goodbye to the older people in the group as he swiftly moved towards the exit with Keith and Pidge not too far behind. Lance, however, took another minute to actually catch up with them having stared at their retreating figures in indignation.

 

As Lance exited the building, Pidge was shoving a helmet over their head while Keith quickly shoved a drawstring backpack into the side storage of the bike. Waving goodbye, they roared out of the parking lot leaving just Hunk and Lance sitting in the Jeep. 

 

It wasn’t too long before Keith and Pidge arrived at the ‘brogane’ apartment, as the friend group nicknamed it, and trudged upstairs. Flopping down on the couch Pidge tugged some sodas from her backpack while Keith set up his switch, sliding his remote halves off the side of the device and passing Pidge her own remote. 

 

Flipping over to Mario kart, Keith joined Pidge on the couch - both of them groaning as Shiro and Matt arrived at the apartment. 

 

“I heard that,” drolled Shiro, dropping the keys in the bowl on the kitchen counter. 

 

“If we have to deal with you two idiots, then you can deal with us complaining,” retorted Keith not looking away from the game, both of them scrolling quickly to find their favorite carts.

“Awww, you really  _ do  _ care,” exclaimed Matt, voice jumping an octave in mock sincerity.

 

Pidge turned around, half leaning over the back of the couch. “Hey Matt?”

 

“What, you little gremlin?”

 

“Fuck off!” Pidge gave a shit eating grin, and accompanied the swear with a middle finger only to turn around for the race to have begun. “What the hell Keith!”

 

“Snooze you lose,” he retorted, speeding into first place. 

 

Both turned their full attention to the race, speeding through the course. 

 

Despite the head start, the race ends with Pidge winning first, Keith just barely in second. Having grabbed some chips from the kitchen, Keith and Pidge ate in silence as Matt and Shiro accidentally ran into each other and did the “four people arrive at a four way stop simultaneously” dance. Sharing a look, Pidge nursed her soda as she sat sprawled across more couch than you would think possible. 

 

“You do realize that they are not even going to realize that it’s a date, right?” 

 

Keith merely slumped down on the edge of the couch at Pidge’s comment, thinking to himself that life couldn’t possibly get worse. Pidge, utterly uncaring, used the opportunity to fling a nearby pillow into Keith’s face. Falling off the couch entirely, Keith merely looked towards Pidge with a glare and stayed lying on the floor with a groan.

 

“How, the  _ fuck _ , are we going to be able to tell they even went and if they realized it was a date?” questioned Keith glaring at the ceiling.

 

“You know...” started Pidge, getting an evil glint in their eye, “you could always follow them.”

 

Keith shot up with a million arguments as to why that was a terrible idea on the tip of his tongue only to have his brain race ahead with every reason Pidge would use to finish off every one of the arguments. Sitting on the floor, he glared at Pidge mouth opening and closing in frustration that he couldn’t come up with a singular reason that could stand up to Pidge’s comebacks. Groaning, Keith slowly sank back to lying flat on the ground.

 

“You know I’m right, and  _ that  _ is why you lost to me,” chirped back Pidge, signature smirk gracing her face, “clearly I am superior.”

 

“Oh  _ hell _ no. Rematch. Now.”

 

Keith snatched up his remote again, leaning against the couch, as they moved into a race of only rainbow roads. The rest of the afternoon passed as normal, with Keith driving Pidge home around 10. Pidge won most of the races, Keith still in the lead for the year long tally - but it was going to be close.

 

By the time Keith had made it back to the apartment, it was getting close to 11. Scrolling through his phone, Keith debated watching a crappy movie or getting ahead on homework only to see that for some ungodly reason, Lance had created yet  _ another _ group chat.

 

**LanceyLance has created a new chat**

_ LanceyLance has added Keithal, Pidgerino, Hunker, and Allural _

_ LanceyLance has named the chat Dem Chids _

**LanceyLance** first off no shiro or matt allowed in this chat capiche?

**Keithal** how do you even come up with all of these names

**Keithal:** they are terrible

**Pidgerino:** i mean they could b worse but im p sure the kids spelled with a ch was my  idea @ lance

**LanceyLance:** ANYWAYS. We all need to space out our cancelations but keith we  need 2k when shiro n matt acutally buy their tickets

**Pidgerino:** also

**Pidgerino:** as with any evil plot we all gotta be sure that our stories all line up bc  otherwise we r all gunna screw ip everything

**Keithal:** sounds good ill let u know and also im prob gunna be following them bc pidge  has destroyed my trust in humanity our sibs are literal idiots

**Allural:** lance if this goes wrong i blame you also i have an actual plan being i need to  study with a group so imma hop on out tomorrow morning

**Keithal:** i can get them to buy their tickets together tonight

**LanceyLance:** WAIT KEITH DID U SAY U WERE GUNNA FOLLOW THEM CAN I  COME

**Keithal:** sure y tf not

**Hunker:** Pidge wanna say our excuse is that we have a project from tech?

**Pidgerino:** i mean sure but they r gunna be annoyed bc i was legit just at the brogane  appt playing mario kart and BEATING KEITHS ASS

**Keithal:** u say that like im not beating u in the long game

**Hunker:** no offense guys but its late so peace dudes

**Keithal:** actually i should go too so that i can get my bro to fucking buy the tickets and  make them fucking go to the movies

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeaaaa this is the last nice chapter i think i have in existence and istg every time I edit a chapter this fic gets a chapter longer. i need to be stopped. its fine. ANYWAYS. college is starting up and wow did i forget how much time rehearsal takes up and im slowly dying. its fine. definitely fine. CONTINUING ONWARDS there will be more actual aerial-ness i promise byeeeeeee
> 
> feel free to scream at me on tumblr @starsofshadowsanddust   
> (im aware its long sorry)

**Author's Note:**

> I HOPE YALL ENJOYED THIS. Hopefully I can post a chapter or two per month but I also know Im about to be murked by the upcoming semester in college so RIP my brain. aerial shtuff will increase as we get goin. honestly im just rambling at this point bc L I F E


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